Acoustic Treatment Part II: Diffusers

Yesterday we discussed acoustic panels for your studio. What they are, and why you need them with a good set of studio monitors. Diffusers on the other hand are an entirely different beast.

Have you ever yelled “ECCCHOOO” in a really big room, or some wide open space?! That’s a rhetorical question! Of course you have. Well, when you hear the other….echo….echo….echo….you are hearing the sound waves created from the vibrations from your vocal chord zooming through the Earths atmosphere at precisely 1117 feet per second at 60 degrees Fahrenheit! The sound waves reflect, and bounce around all over the place. The same principle holds true in your audio/video studio, albeit on a much smaller/faster scale due to the much shorter distance the sound waves are traveling before bouncing, or “reflecting” off of your walls. This echo, or “reflection” will be captured in your mix if you aren’t very careful with “controlling” it long before you hit the record button in your software. Ok….that’s enough science for now!

So why buy a diffuser? It almost seems like a diffuser and an acoustic panel are the same thing? Well, sort of…depending on the type of panels you purchased. (See acoustic treatment part I) to learn about acoustic panels and how they are different than diffusers.

A sound diffuser on the other hand is designed to deliberately control those annoying reflections giving you the best results for your mix. They do this by allowing you to direct the sound reflects in a certain manner, or allow you to diffuse them all together….to a point that is!

Follow this link to learn everything you need to know about diffusers.